New owner Jim Crane and Astros chief executive officer George Postolos are in charge, searching for a new general manager and charting a course for the future. Postolos cited the need for a “fresh start” in dismissing Smith and Wade, which could come of little comfort to any of the holdovers from the previous regime.

Since Brad Mills took over as Astros manager, the team has traded away Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn. (James Nielsen/Chronicle)

In Wade’s estimation, maybe the best thing he did during his four years as GM was to hire Mills after the 2009 season. Mills has a 132-192 record to show for two years managing a team that has been in the dismantling mode, plus the possible stigma of guilt by association with the previous regime.

The Astros will be cutting out all the luxuries they can for the foreseeable future, placing their emphasis on scouting and player development. Look for the new regime to be more driven by data and statistical analysis than the previous regime, which tended to favor boots-on-the-ground information and impressions gathered by their scouts.

How Mills fits into that equation is unclear. On the one hand, Mills is under contract for 2012 with an option for the year after that. On the other hand, the new GM should have say in who will manage the team. And maybe the next GM will be perfectly comfortable with Mills, an unassuming good-soldier type who is as relentlessly hard-working and prepared as he is upbeat.

And the Astros are going to need somebody who doesn’t get crushed by the weight of losing, because there will be a lot of that in the immediate future. The next handful of years are liable to be a colossal pain in the won-lost record to whomever happens to be managing the team.

“This is an exciting time for this organization, our fans, everything,” Mills said. “I hope everyone realizes it. These guys (Crane and Postolos), they definitely have a lot of persistence and determination. I think they’re showing a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about doing what we need to do to get the organization moving in that direction. That’s exciting, man. That’s exciting.

Mills said he has no reservations whatsoever about the prospect of the Astros operating with a more analytical bent. Remember, his previous place job was a bench coach with the sabertmetrics-driven Boston Red Sox. Mills arrived in 2004, when the Red Sox won the first of two World Series titles on the watch of general manager Theo Epstein.

“I wanted to go to an organization that’s thought of in the industry as being on the cutting edge,” said Mills, who spend 2003 getting a bench-coach education under old-school manager Frank Robinson with the Montreal Expos. “That’s why I wanted to go (to Boston). That’s where I could learn. That’s how I could get better.”

One of Mills’ most significant self-improvement steps came after a 2000 firing from his job as Phillies first-base coach. The Cubs hired Mills to be an advance scout in 2001. Though he desperately missed being on the field and lasted only year, the requirements of that job helped bring him up to speed with 21st-century technology.

“I knew I had to learn some computer skills,” Mills said. “I went out and bought my own computer, took computer classes at a local college and learned how to use a computer.”

He learned how to file scouting reports on line, how to do spreadsheets. Along the way, Mills became increasingly comfortable with statistics and analysis. He began compiling his own database, which he has married with an affinity for video study. Before making out a lineup, Mills would make it his business to know if Clint Barmes was 13-for-27 against that day’s starting pitcher (Paul Maholm) or 1-for-18 (Matt Cain). He would look for the matchups that set up best for his relievers, though such nuances don’t tend to pay as many dividends for teams that are going 56-106 and shedding payroll along the way.

That doesn’t mean Mills was immune to decisions that left observers scratching their heads. He gave 156 at-bats and 29 starts to 35-year-old Jason Michaels, who batted .199 for a team that needed to learn as much as it could about its young players. Could Brian Bogusevic have gotten more than 13 at-bats against lefthanded pitching, just to see what he can do? Was there a way to get more at-bats for Matt Downs (.864 on-base-plus-slugging in 222 plate appearances)?

The Astros were 13th in the National League in runs and 15th in homers, so Mills often tried to create offense with small-ball strategies. Though he seemed awfully eager at times to bunt, especially early in games, the Astros actually had five fewer sacrifices than the average NL team. That would indicate that Mills has more than a passing familiarity with some of the statistical probabilities of assorted strategies. For two years, he’s been employing those strategies for talent-deficient teams.

“All information is valuable, but you get into a situation where you have to realize what you can and can’t get readily to make you be able to apply it during a ballgame,” Mills said. “That’s where the computer comes in. You’re able to use it through your memory and the sheets you print up during your game preparation. All that information isn’t valuable until you’re able to use it.”

Can Mills quantify how much the raw data drives his decisions, and how much of it comes from his accumulated experiences?

“I don’t know if you really want to quantify it,” Mills said. “he reason is, you don’t want to make everything just black and white. It’s a tool. You want to make sure you’re utilizing everything you can out of that tool without becoming a robot. You want to be able to have the experience that your carry into it, managing in the minor leagues, playing in the major leagues and minor leagues, being a coach at the major-league level, as an advance scout. You want to be able to use all those experiences.

“If you start quantifying it, you become so predictable to everyone that it would seem to be a hindrance.”

Ultimately, though, baseball isn’t just a statistical simulation. It’s about managing people, getting them to be the best players they can be.

“I think so much of the players, the human factor you want in there so much,” Mills said. “You want to have a relationship with them. You look at a human being. You don’t look at a bunch of stats. That (data) is important, but at the same time, you need to have some type of relationship. Those guys need to play up to the best of their capabilities.”